How Does Tesla ‘Perpendicular Parking’ Work?

Tesla continues to improve upon its suite of Autopilot features with the latest being the addition of Perpendicular Parking which extends on the Auto Parallel Parking capability. Released in firmware 7.1, Tesla Perpendicular Parking will allow the Model S and Model X to automatically navigate itself into a parking space that’s surrounded by two cars.

Step 1 – Align the Vehicle

Identify the parking space and drive forward at a slow speed passing the open parking space until a “P” indicator appears on the Tesla instrument cluster. This is your signal that the Autopilot hardware has identified the parking space and read to perform its sequence of self parking maneuvers.

Step 2 – “Start” Autopark

Once the vehicle is aligned, place the vehicle into (R)everse, while keeping your foot on the brake, and engage Autopark by touching the “Start” button on the center touchscreen display, before finally letting go of the brake. The Tesla will automatically begin turning and navigating itself into the parking space. The rear view camera will be your visual indicator to how the Autopark vehicle aligns itself between the two parked cars lining the perpendicular parking space.

The vehicle will continue to perform a sequence of turns, while slowly driving itself in between both parked vehicle, before finalizing with a precise parking job.

Video Demonstration

The following video was submitted to us by a Canadian Model S owner who demonstrates how the automatic perpendicular parking feature functions.